The spread of the Delta variant of the COVID-19 pandemic has hampered sentiments around Vietnam for Apple Inc. (Apple) in 2021, while Alphabet Inc. (Google) and Amazon.com Inc. (Amazon) have had fewer discussions around the country, with a dip in sentiments, according to the Filing Analytics Platform of GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Reportedly, the mentions of Vietnam peaked in 2019 for Apple, as the company looked at shifting production to Vietnam during the US-China trade war. However, sentiments have dipped by nearly 7% year-on-year in 2021.

Rinaldo Pereira, Senior Business Fundamentals Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Companies continue to grapple the global chip shortage and shifting production out of China has become more complex for big tech firms. In Amazon’s 2021 filings, supply chain risks were a key topic of discussion around Vietnam mentions. At the same time, Apple mentioned ‘AirPods’ as a keyword in 2021 filings discussions around Vietnam. Apple might not be able to shift its AirPods production to Vietnam as quickly it hoped due to the Delta variant- a case similar to Google’s production shift intentions for newer Pixel models.”

Google and Amazon had more minor mentions of Vietnam, while each had few discussions around China compared to North America, the US or Europe in 2021. However, China continues to be among the top geographic mentions for Apple in 2021 filings.

Anisha Bhatia, Senior Analyst for Consumer Services, Platforms and Devices at GlobalData, suggests that the increase in Apple’s hiring activity in recent months is an effort to boost market share in regions such as India, Africa, and the Middle East.

Mr Pereira concludes: “Apple, Google and Amazon’s job postings’ growth in Vietnam was also slower at 13% compared to China’s 50% during H1 2021 compared to H1 2020. The new restrictions in place in Vietnam and shortage-related supply chain risks have dampened the sentiments of companies looking to shift production out of China. In the long-term, the big tech companies are likely to tread a geopolitical and regulatory tight rope while looking at non-Chinese production.”